Dutch Programme Council for Educational Research
The PROO's framework consists of the assignment allocated to the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO) by the State Secretary for Education in 1995. The PROO was set up in September 1996 by the NWO Governing Board, under the auspices the Board of NWO’s Social Sciences and is charged with drafting a research programme for educational research. The research areas of PROO include primary education, general secondary education, (pre-) vocational education and teacher training institutes. The PROO consists of five scientific members and four educational practioners.
Research programme 2008-2011
The research programme 2008-2011 is the second long-term programme by the PROO. The new programme is an extension of the previous programme 2004-2007 and has been updated taking into account new scientific and social developments. The programme offers room for (mid-)long-term fundamental research with pratical relevance, whereby explanatory questions play a key role. The PROO has a focus on three central lines of research that represent a balance bewteen micro-, meso- and macro-oriented issues:
- Educational learning processes and their results;
- Educational staff;
- Education’s pedagogic function.
For the second subsidy round for Interlinked Research Projects a fourth line of research was added: 'Characteristics of education systems and central functions of education'.
With these lines of research, the PROO aims to contribute to more evidence-based education. There has been a growing call for effective methods and approaches. Appropriate research should address (part aspects) to see whether an approach works, why it works and be evaluated (possibly during the research) on the basis of clear output measures. In addition to this the PROO welcomes research that is:
- Scientifically innovative;
- Draws knowledge from everyday practice into the research;
- Pays attention to the possible use of the research results;
- Brings together insights from several disciplines;
- Integrates themes from the research lines;
- Contains a substantial international component.
COOL 5-18
Another core area of PROO is cohort research. PROO finances, by government order, COOL5-18: a longitudinal datacollection in primary, secondary and senior secondary vocational education, performed by a consortium consisting of Cito, GION, ITS and the SCO Kohnstamm Institute in cooperation with the CBS.
This website
Some parts of the PROO website are in English. In the menu on the right you'll find some pages in English and some in Dutch. On the Dutch pages you can find links to English summaries next to the links to Dutch summaries.